Chapter 6
Just as she finished speaking, before Jian Xinyi could explain anything, Bai Yuanyuan suddenly screamed, "Lin Zhuiyu, you've already fallen in love with me, haven't you? You even painted her in your painting?"
Jian Xinyi was completely speechless: "No, don't talk nonsense, it's really just a coincidence."
Bai Yuanyuan scoffed, "Then how come you drew the Jinwu Guards? They were so kind and helped you. Are these all coincidences?"
"I said yes, do you believe it?"
Jian Xinyi stared at Bai Yuanyuan with a sincere look on her face.
Bai Yuanyuan couldn't help but sigh: "You are the heroine."
When Jian Xinyi heard her words, her eyes widened instantly: "Don't talk nonsense, I'm not a female protagonist, I'm just an author who wants to make a living."
"You two are still chatting. You caused such a big incident and didn't say a word when you came back." Old Lin was furious when he saw the two girls. "It's so late. Send Yuanyuan back quickly. I'll talk to you later."
Jian Xinyi reluctantly put on her clothes and was about to send Bai Yuanyuan out when she saw Bai Yuanyuan's anxious expression. She raised her voice and asked, "What about Shi Kui?"
Old Lin sighed, secretly twisted a few tea leaves from his sleeve, found a coarse pottery cup with a few cracks, and brewed himself a cup of tea. "His parents are going to look for my third aunt's godson. I heard he's an official, so maybe he can help."
After saying that, he stuffed the remaining tea leaves from his sleeve into a jar on the bookcase, and did not forget to teach them a lesson: "In the future, stay away from that brat. He only knows how to do nothing and has no manners."
Seeing her cheap father being so stingy, Jian Xinyi suspected that he had secretly taken the tea from Shi Kui's house again. Her face suddenly became gloomy, but since Yuanyuan was there, she did not get angry and sent her back first.
When Bai's mother saw her coming, she took her aside and had a long and intimate conversation. She just wanted her to come and accompany Bai Yuanyuan more often.
Old Lin is a dead bookworm who can't do anything else except raising a daughter. The neighbors all think that Lin Zhuiyu is well-educated and well-mannered, and they all want to give their daughter some advice so that she can at least behave like a lady.
But Jian Xinyi was no longer Lin Zhuiyu, and she didn't understand etiquette at all. She could only nod and agree.
The three of them were in silence when a waiter suddenly came in and when he was counting the goods, he found that a batch of rouge was missing.
Upon hearing this, Bai's mother stood up suddenly, put her hands on her hips, and followed the waiter to the rouge shop: "I don't believe we can't catch this little thief."
Jian Xinyi was puzzled. Why did this person always come to steal rouge and powder? Could it be that she was a poor girl from some family and had suddenly developed evil intentions?
Doubts grew in her heart, and she asked aloud, "Yuanyuan, could it be that some poor girl stole the rouge shop?"
Just as the words fell, Bai Yuanyuan shook her head and said, "We thought so at first, too. We hired a lot of people to look after the rouge shop, but it still got lost. If it were an ordinary poor girl, how could she have such good skills?"
"You hired a lot of people, and yet it still ended up like this?"
Jian Xinyi inexplicably had a bad feeling. Could it be that... the thief was also an expert?
Bai Yuanyuan also echoed: "Yes, I don't know what kind of expert stole it. He came and went without a trace."
"The master would come to steal rouge, what does that mean?" Jian Xinyi clapped her hands suddenly, startling Bai Yuanyuan. She put on a Conan-like demeanor, surrounding Bai Yuanyuan, and pushed up her nonexistent glasses. She began to reason, "There's only one truth: that master has a crush on a woman, but can't get her. He steals rouge for her every day, but doesn't dare tell her. He just wants to retire and stay by her side, sharing three meals a day, four seasons a day, for the rest of their lives."
Bai Yuanyuan rolled her eyes when she heard Jian Xinyi's half-baked reasoning. "If a man steals rouge to amuse me, that's too bad."
"Indeed, I was just kidding." She nodded, but a bold idea emerged in her mind.
What if this person had a reason to steal rouge and powder?
For example, it may be used to murder someone, or his status does not allow him to buy such things, but he has reasons to use it.
Jian Xinyi fell into confusion. The house was completely silent. She realized that night had arrived. Just as she was about to get up, she saw Bai Yuanyuan looking worried. She poked her quietly, "Zhuiyu, it's getting late. You'd better go back quickly. If you're any later, the streets will be in turmoil."
Jian Xinyi looked outside. It was indeed pitch black. She didn't know what time it was. She nodded and stood up. "Okay, then you have a good rest. I'm leaving now. If you catch that thief, remember to let me know."
Bai Yuanyuan nodded and walked her to the door.
Jian Xinyi walked through the streets at night. The evening breeze was accompanied by the hawking sounds from the street. The familiar atmosphere filled the future, and she felt like she was living a new life.
Although the night market here is not as prosperous as the modern ones, there are still many novel things. Jian Xinyi strolled around in a hurry, wanting to feel the local customs and culture so that the background would not be too abstract when drawing.
In a blink of an eye, they arrived at the shop where sachets were sold. Jian Xinyi was attracted by the exquisite sachets and stopped to look at them for a long time. But then she remembered that she had no money in this world. Just as she was about to leave in shame, she smelled a strange scent of powder mixed with sandalwood.
Turning around, he saw a girl in luxurious clothes. Her face couldn't be seen clearly through the veil, but judging from her pitiful round eyes, she must be quite pretty. She was holding a willow-wood pipa. Before she could say anything, the little girl next to her snatched the sachet from Jian Xinyi's hand arrogantly, "My lady wants it."
The vendor pushed Jian Xinyi aside and came to the girl. "The ball hanging down here is a red wooden ball. It's unlucky. I'll replace it with a gold sachet ball for you."
The girl spoke slowly, her voice as clear as a yellow oriole singing out of a valley, "No need, just this."
Just as he finished speaking, a young man nearby noticed something and said, "Isn't this Madam Liu Qin from Xianxian Tower? Did she just go to Tanhua Mansion today?"
Jian Xinyi was horrified. Xianxian Tower, wasn't that the place where Shi Kui had the accident?
She listened carefully to the conversation between the two, not daring to slack off.
The girl nodded very casually: "What a coincidence, sir, it is indeed so."
Just as Jian Xinyi was about to walk out, she heard the young man continue to ask, "Why didn't Qianrou go this time? Didn't you guys go together before?"
Qianrou?
Isn’t the deceased Qianrou?
Jian Xinyi shrank back again and followed closely behind the two of them.
When the girl heard Qian Rou's name, her expression changed slightly: "Qian Rou...is not feeling well, so I came here by myself."
"Without Miss Qianrou, Xianxian Tower is still under the control of Miss Liuqin. Why are you so unhappy?" The young man seemed to be very fond of Miss Liuqin and took the sachet from her hand. "This red wood one is fine for warding off evil spirits, but it would be too cheap to hang it on a sachet. So, I'll give you the gold one as well."
Before the girl could say anything, the young man ran to the sachet shop. Jian Xinyi quickly dodged and walked towards her home, but she kept thinking about the conversation between the two of them. She always felt that there was something important that she had missed, but she couldn't find it.
She returned to the bookstore with a heavy heart. Only a candlelight was left in the bookstore. Lao Lin was sitting at the table waiting for her. The candlelight reflected his profile. Although he was forty years old, his temples were gray and his cheeks were thin.
When he saw Jian Xinyi coming, his eyes were deep, but he didn't say anything. He just sighed and said, "Go to sleep first."
A feeling of guilt arose spontaneously, and Jian Xinyi's eyes turned red unconsciously, but she couldn't tell whether the feeling was hers or Lin Zhuiyu's.
She suppressed her guilt, went back into the house, picked up her brush and began to draw the plot.
She changed many inappropriate plots in the first chapter, especially the plot of the cold man. In order to fit the character, she deleted the ambiguous eyes and replaced them with more domineering phoenix eyes.
The sunny man arranges to be a hero saving the beauty in the suburbs, the indifferent man arranges to meet by chance on the street to borrow money, the gentle man still meets at home, and the black-bellied man is better arranged to meet at a banquet, and a quick glimpse of him can be seen when he accidentally leaves the table.
The plot can barely be connected, but the characters need to be polished. One thing that was slightly better in ancient times than in modern times was that the characters could be a little more stereotyped and there was no need for drastic innovation. The characters in recent otome games are so weird that Jian Xinyi complains a lot. Every day she discusses with her gay friends how to make the male protagonist look less human.
The idea that a domineering CEO loves to drink strawberry milkshake is outdated. What’s more interesting now is that a domineering CEO is a human during the day and a ghost at night.
Jian Xinyi felt a little embarrassed and scratched her head.
The sunny man can be the assistant minister of the Ministry of Justice who fights against violence and protects the good, the cold man can be the prince of the opposite sex, the scheming man can be the prince, and the gentle man can be the new top scholar. This makes sense.
As for the heroine, a princess is definitely not an option, and the prime minister's daughter is afraid of being too detailed, so it is better to just mention that she is the daughter of a fourth-rank official. It is not too detailed nor too obscure.
The character design, portrait, and first appearance are all arranged, and the next step is to name it.
Naming is undoubtedly the most annoying part for every game designer. It has to be close to the character setting, but also unconventional. She thought hard but still couldn't come up with a good name. She decided to let her cheap dad think about it when she came back, after all, he was an old scholar.
Thinking this way, Jian Xinyi began to construct the plot of the second chapter. Generally, in the second chapter of the Orange Light game, the relationship between the male and female protagonists will take a step further, but they cannot break through that layer of window paper. If there are five chapters of the main plot, it will take nearly two chapters to pull it out.
In the second chapter, at least the male protagonists should feel each other's presence, and then have a crazy fight with the female protagonists. For example, the sunny guy wanted to ask the female protagonist out, but the female protagonist refused because of her status. However, she had to stay at home with the gentle guy. When she sent him out, she happened to see the sunny guy again, and they all looked embarrassed.
After a few days, the heroine racked her brains to find the sunny guy to apologize, but she met the indifferent guy on the street. The heroine used the excuse of escaping to secretly return the money to the indifferent guy, but the black-bellied guy thought the indifferent guy was a liar. When the three of them were in a stalemate, the sunny guy walked out silently.
What a big show.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com